bullying

After being bullied her whole life, 20-year-old Kaya van den Dikkenberg decided to use Valentine's Day to draw attention to this problem. On Thursday she handed out "Valentine's Day cards" at Utrecht Central Station. But instead of a love letter, the cards contained letters written by people who are being bullied, RTL Nieuws reports.

The Penta College in Spijkenisse and the Spijkenisse football association suspended a number of teenagers due to an assault on another teenager. Videos of the assault were shared on social media on Monday night. The videos show a boy being attacked by a group of other teenagers.

The attack happened on Friday, according to NOS. The 14-year-old victim sustained a broken nose, a torn earlobe and multiple bruises. The police since arrested five underage boys from Spijkenisse. One of the young suspects' home is getting extra protection as a precaution.

A 16-year-old boy who fired multiple gunshots at his school in Roermond on Friday, will not be allowed to return to the school, the mayor of Roermond said at a meeting fro parents on Saturday. The teenager was showing positive development and the school had no indications that he was planning an attack, NOS reports.

The vast majority of people who work in the Netherlands' sex industry face some form of violence, mostly from customers, according to a study by Aidsfonds, Soa Aids Nederland and sex workers' interest group Proud, Het Parool reports.

A 4-year-old boy came home from primary school De Meerpaal in Leiden on Monday with his face covered in bruises. His father Stephan de Wolff posted a photo of the boy's injuries on Facebook, with a call for help and to bring the issue of bullying under national attention. The post was shared nearly 40 thousand times.

More children in primary schools in the Netherlands are being bullied than parents and teachers know of. One in three bullied kids never tell their teachers, parents or friends about it, according to study 'What works against bullying' by five universities and the Trimbos Institute, RTL Nieuws reports.

About 30 percent of Dutch kids are sometimes bullied. One in 14 children are even bullied multiple times a week. A third of these bullied kids have never told anyone about it, according to the study.

Three soldiers accused of various forms of misconduct at the Airmobile Brigade barracks in Scaarsbergen, filed a complaint against State Secretary Barbara Visser of Defense. They believe the State Secretary already publicly condemned them, despite the investigation still being ongoing, AD reports.

A professor at the university medical center in Maastricht is no longer the head of the Transplantation Immunology department after a flood of criticism on his behavior. Former employees call working under him "North Korean conditions" and accuse him of mistreating coworkers and PhD students for years, NOS reports.

It is not clear whether this professor was dismissed as department head, or stepped down on his own. He still works at the hospital, but only as a researcher and as supervisor for PhD students, according to the broadcaster.

Hans J. poured caustic peracetic acid into a warehouse at IJsseland Hospital in Capelle aan den IJssel on May 4th of this year because he was angry about his colleagues bullying him, the 26-year-old man said in the court in Rotterdam on Friday. At least 16 of his colleagues got health complaints, three were seriously injured, and the hospital sustained large amounts of damage because it temporarily had to close some of its departments, the Telegraaf reports.

J. is facing charges of attempted murder or manslaughter, assault and vandalism.

Queen Maxima paid a visit to the Hofstad Lyceum in The Hague on Wednesday morning to talk to pupils about the acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexual classmates. She also spoke with LGBTI students and representatives of LGBTI interest organization COC, NOS reports.

The COC representatives explained the situation LGBTI students face in schools and in general. And students showed the Queen actions they plan to take against bullying.

State Secretary Barbara Visser of Defense calls on victims of abuses in the Dutch armed forces to come forward, following a report in the Volkskrant about three soldiers who left their unit in Schaarsbergen after being assaulted, bullied, abused and even raped. "Unacceptable. I read the article and had chills. This is not worthy of Defense", the State Secretary said to ANP.

Three Dutch soldiers left their unit in Schaarsbergen in 2014 because they were assaulted, bullied, extorted, abused and one was raped, the Volkskrant reports. Some of these incidents happened during hazing. Four soldiers from the same unit were punished. One of the victims filed a police declaration about the incidents two weeks ago, according to the newspaper.

Over 12 percent of Dutch girls between the ages of 15 and 18 years have been bullied online, almost twice as many as boys in the same age group, Statistics Netherlands reported based on figures from the Safety Monitor. The total number of Netherlands residents over the age of 15 that faced cyber bullying remained stable at 3 percent between 2014 and 2016. That is about 400 thousand people, ANP reports.

Amsterdam fire department commander Leen Schaap is still struggling to change the culture within the corps, which still shows signs of discrimination, racism and bullying, Mayor Eberhard van der Laan and municipal secretary Arjan van Gils said in a letter to the city council, NU.nl reports.

The number of reports of physical violence in Dutch schools increased from 426 to 569 in the 2015/16 school year, according to a report from the Education Inspectorate. The complaints about discrimination on the grounds of race or religion decreased by around 40 percent to 28 complaints. The total number of reports decreased slightly, from 2,000 to 1,962, the Telegraaf reports.

Student Milou Deelen (21) made a video about her experience with "slut shaming" at the Groningen student association Vindicat in honor of International Women's Day. With the video, Deelen wants to draw attention to misogyny in the association, to which she herself fell victim, Het Parool reports.

Hundreds of students attended the memorial, according to newspaper AD. Students were given the chance to sing songs and read quotes or poems. Afterwards white balloons with messages to Tharukshan were released into the air.

A 15-year-old Sri Lankan boy from Heerlen committed suicide on Sunday. According to a message his family posted on Facebook, young Tharukshan Selvam could no longer take the racial abuse, extortion, bullying and harassment on social media accounts from his classmates.

Activists involved in the debate surrounding blackface Zwarte Piet released a statement calling for calm on Monday after a meeting with the Ministry of Social Affairs. They feel a calm and respectful discussion is what is needed on the subject

Support for blackface makeup on Sinterklaas character Zwarte Piet is steadily declining, though the vast majority is still in favor of it. In Maurice d e Hond's latest political poll 21 percent of Dutch indicated that it is time for Zwarte Piet to change, compared to less than 10 percent three years ago.

The number of kids being bullied at school in the Netherlands is decreasing, though it is till a problem many children face on a daily basis, according to State Secretary Sander Dekker of Education. This year 10 percent of primary school kids were harassed by a bully at least once a month, compared to 14 percent two years ago. In high school, that figure decreased from 11 to 8 percent.

A 9-year-old boy from Den Helder is currently being treated for severe burns after another child doused him with boiling water while they were playing outside on Thursday afternoon, Noordhollands Dagblad reports. The police are questioning a 9-year-old suspect.